Month: December 2015

This summer car manufacturer BMW presented a new vehicle driven by a fuel cell. In Miramar in the south of France, the Bavarian company revealed their new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo (GT) on the first of July 2015. The car is a showcase vehicle, which was developed in cooperation with Toyota and is planned for mass production by 2020.

Second quarter figures certainly fell short of expectations. All segments reported decreasing revenues. Still: The second half of 2015 should bring forth many positive developments in several areas, according to Ballard’s CEO, Randall MacEwen. FuelCell Energy would be “extremely busy.” This means: I assume that the takeover of Protonex will soon become reality, as over 50% of preliminary votes by Protonex’s shareholders were in favor of the deal.

FuelCell Energy specializes in large-scale projects using fuel-cell technology to generate clean energy (electricity and heat). It is also leading in technologies such as CO2 capture and storage. The company recently secured a contract award by the American Department of Energy for a scalable CO2 capturing project (e.g., for coal-fired power plants) potentially worth around US$ 24 million. The system used

South Africa is the biggest economy on the African continent, and since the end of apartheid more than 20 years ago, the country has been viewed as a role model by many of its neighbors. Because of its very healthy economic development, the nation at the Cape of Good Hope has become part of the BRICS group of countries. There is, however, the issue of unstable energy supply as well as the uneven spread of wealth among the population, which has meanwhile begun to hamper South Africa’s progress

Since August 1, there has been a new CEO at the helm of H-Tec’s electrolysis division: Michael Seehuber, who is now managing H-Tec Systems. Seehuber will take over the responsibilities previously held by Uwe Küter, who founded H-Tec in 1997 together with Stefan Höller and left the company in 2014. The company’s former Head of Sales, Ake Johnson, will manage the training division, H-Tec Education. For seven years, Michael Seehuber was CEO of REFUsol, a specialist in inverters, which was bought up by AEI Power in 2013. In August 2014, the electrical engineer established PV4Life, a consultancy for power electronics. Ove Petersen,

The energy transformation needs efficient storage solutions and technologies for heat conversion. One of the institutions playing an important role in advancing the transformation of the energy sector is the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, ISE, in Freiburg. Increasing interest in energy storage technologies as well as efficient heating and cooling processes has led to an expansion of ISE’s

The Hydrogen Information Truck H2M, a tractor-trailer, began its road tour through Europe in Italy in spring 2015. The tour’s starting location on April 20 was the Italian parliament; the final destination was Paris at the end of 2015.There, the truck advertises for sustainable environmental policies during the UN Climate Conference (COP 21).

What impact does the ongoing electrification of the automotive industry have? Which technology fields will be affected by the structural changes? What needs to be done not to lag behind? Questions like these are a concern especially to regions highly dependent on the car industry. In a search for answers, the State Agency for Electric Mobility and Fuel Cell Technology, e-mobil BW

Since summer of 2012, Roland Käppner had been President of McPhy Energy Germany. At the beginning of 2014, he also became Vice President of McPhy Energy S.A. In July of last year, the French company announced that it would collaborate with British corporation GKN on the development of solid-hydrogen storage systems. This August, Käppner changed jobs and has since managed business development as Global Director Hydrogen at GKN Sinter Metals, a GKN subsidiary. Peter Oberparleiter, CEO of GKN Powder Metallurgy, said:

Connectivity and digitalization – these were the main topics of the International Automobile Exhibition (IAA), which took place in Frankfurt a. M., Germany, from September 17 to 27, 2015. Both the media uplink to the entire globe and digital premium offers appeared much more important than clean engine technologies. The announcements did include much on electric cars